Nokia admits Apple is a "must have" in the US and EU

A Nokia France manager has acknowledged that the App Store has helped Apple to achieve "must have" status in the US and Europe.

Speaking at MIPCOM, Nokia France's Cedric Thomas showed a slide saying "Apple is a must have in US and EU," while also noting that Nokia is key for the Asian market and Europe, Mobile Entertainment reports. The slide, which was titled "Address the App Stores," also notes that Android is leading the US market and growing in the EU and that BlackBerry is strong in the US.

Thomas, who heads Nokia's Ovi initiative in France, also announced that the Ovi store has reached 2.5 million downloads a day. By comparison, analyst Gene Munster estimated in June that daily downloads from the App Store had topped 16.6 million apps. Over 250,000 apps are available from the App Store.

Nokia's management team underwent a shakeup last month as its CEO, Chairman and head of Nokia's smartphone business all announced within a week of each other that they would step down. After the announcements, analysts suggested that some of the resignations were caused by Nokia's continued loss of mobile market share to smartphones like Apple's iPhone.

Some pundits found Thomas' comments surprisingly candid, given that relations between Apple and Nokia have been strained as of late. The two companies have been repeatedly suing and countersuing each other over alleged mobile devicepatent violations since October 2009, when Nokia fired the first shot.